Novatec Dyno-Hub

I didn't have a good reason for this other than boredom and the desire to tinker; my Princeton Tec headlamp and blinky work very well—really, the headlamp works better than any light I've ever fixed to the handlebars.

Nonetheless, I had the itch. My touring/commuting Trek has lights (B&M Lumotec Oval halogen headlight) and a B&M sidewall generator. The halogen headlight is nice (but the beam pattern is blotchy bright rather than uniform), but the sidewall generator only works when it's dry. When the tire gets wet, the generator slips. One solution is to put on a wire roller, but who wants to be tinkering with the generator every time it rains? (The wire roller would chew up the sidewall if left on for long.)

So I broke down and bought the Novatec generator hub from Velo Orange for $35. Dirt cheap, and probably almost worth the very little I paid. But I had a spare rim, tire (a nice Schwalbe Marathon that I haven't been able to use on my defective Velocity Synergy rim) and tube lying around. I bought cheap spokes from Niagara, and built up the wheel. (That's always fun.) So for $55 I got a generator wheel.

And how does it work? Actually, the rolling part is surprisingly good. Everyone moans and groans about hubs that aren't Schmidts, how the rolling resistance will ruin your life, but quite frankly, although I can tell the difference when I switch the light on and off, mostly I would never know it's there. The bike rolls fast, I don't feel like I'm working any harder, and why should a little resistance bother me? It's like the difference between a 3 mph headwindwind and a 3.5 mph headwind. Sure, there's a difference, but not much of one.

The big problem with the Novatec hub is its efficiency. It's not very. It really doesn't put out enough juice to power the halogen headlight at full brightness. The sidewall generator puts out much more power.

I hope the solution is to swap in an LED headlight (I ordered a cheap one from Peter White for $23), which requires much less power to hit its stride. We'll see.

Even with the new headlight, my investment isn't too big. I will then have a bottle generator and light that I could put on the slush mobile.

But I like the idea of having my main workhorse bike have reliable lights all the time, even when I want to jump on it and go to the store at 3 am for some MD 20/20.

Update: Installed the DLumotec Oval. It does reach full intensity with the Novatec hub, but full intensity isn't particularly intense. But that's not the dynamo's fault. It's probably about as intense as the halogen light (different beam color and pattern, of course), but I will continue to use my EOS headlamp, which is dramatically brighter, in addition. The DLumotec will be good as an emergency light and when I don't want to fiddle with the strap-on headlamp; and the always on taillight will be good to have.